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Re:Grape fern
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Posted by tomasincas Z5NWPA (My Page) on Sat, Oct 24, 09 at 21:16
For some reason one of my grape ferns ( Botrychium dissectum var. Obliqum ) has grown about twice the size that they normally grow and it sprang up later than other years but it has not sent up any stalk or fertile frond, this also has twin leaves. Usually I have only one leaf and stalk. will try and put picture here.I think it will not send up any fertile part as it is getting to late in the season now. Tom in NW. PA.
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Re:Grape fern
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| One possible explanation....there are probably others! An increase in the size of a plant structure is usually an indication of an increase in ploidy. Almost all ferns are polyploids, having more than 2 sets of chromosomes per nucleus, such as triploid (N=3), tetraploid (N=4), pentaploid (N=5), etc. The number of chromosome sets can run into the hundreds in some plants.
Those plants with an odd number of chromosome sets (N=3, N=5, N=7, etc.) are sterile and cannot reproduce by sexual processes. Sterile ferns do not produce sporangium and spores. |
RE: Re:Grape fern
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ladywindsurfer,thanks for the input,maybee this particular fern will turn out to be sterile,will check next year,sometimes the leaf or frond remains evergreen and turns a bronzish color in the fall-winter then following year a new leaf comes up right along side of it and the original leaf starts to yellow and die back sending up a new frond and a short time after that, the plant sends up a fertile stalk or sporphore with the greenish -yellow grape
like cluster of sporangia as in photo below
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